'Phone Rings, Door Chimes, In Comes Company'

I was finally able to see the Lincoln Center production of Stephen Sondheim's Company, not live as I had hoped, but on the big screen. My love for Sondheim runs deep-- I may have mentioned the many acts of crazy I've gone through to see his work. I claim that Company is my favorite musical of all time but I had, uh, never actually seen it (oh the irony).

I've listened to the original cast recording on repeat and watched a wonderful documentary which records the recording of the cast recording, which is 'so totally meta' (long side note: an old film professor's favorite term, but picture it being said in a thick German accent while watching something like Melvin Van Peeble's 'Sweet Sweetback's Baaadasssss Song'-- no really, it's a movie...it exists...now picture me counting three A's and five S's to get the title right in this blog post...)

The documentary (which I recommend) features a young Stephen Sondheim smoking cigarettes in the booth at the studio, advising the actors in between coughs and takes. And all of this, made me feel as if I had seen the musical when I really hadn't.

What I love about Company is the way it captures relationships, the confusion and complexity, through incredible music and lyrics. It's not about the set or the stage. It is about Bobby, the only single man in a group of married friends, and his desperation to find a wife...without actually having to fall in love.

We meet those 'good and crazy people, his married friends' as they navigate confused feelings about their own relationships. How they lose themselves and find themselves through one another. How, when we fall in love, 'everything's different' but 'nothing's changed' or 'only maybe slightly rearranged'. There is fear of being loved too much or not enough. And the idea that sometimes we get on our hands and knees to beg for someone to stay and, when they do, all we want is for them to leave (the same in reverse). These kinds of dynamics are so compelling, so real, I love to see it captured on stage and in song.

It goes without saying that I recommend the musical highly. The cast is what I can only call an 'uber cast' with the likes of Neil Patrick Harris, Stephen Colbert, Patti Lupone, Martha Plimpton...the list goes on. Even if you don't like musicals, there are long scenes of excellent dialogue, more so than in most musicals, I would say. But it is, in my opinion, the lyrics to the songs that make this musical so brilliant.

You do not have to pay hundreds of dollars or go to a major city to see it because it is playing at movie theaters across the country for a very limited time. So, go! Quickly! Run don't walk! And tell me what you think if you do...

Photo credit: zimbio.com

S is for Sondheim

Oh the things I have done for my favorite composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim...

Back in 2001, I waited all day to see Merrily We Roll Along at the Donmar Warehouse. And that was after having waited all day long and been denied once before.

In 2005, I woke up at 5am and hiked up to the Upper West Side, where I sat on the concrete outside of Symphony Space and played 6 hours of 'celebrity' with my friend Daniel, just so I could get in to see Wall to Wall Sondheim, a 12-hour, free concert for Sondheim's 75th birthday.

And just last week, I became the mayor of crazytown yet again. I called the Lincoln Center box office incessantly to see if there had been any cancellations for the sold-out, EPIC, performance of Company, starring people like Stephen Colbert, Neil Patrick Harris, Patti LuPone, and my girl crush Christina Hendricks.

When that failed and Laura at the box office (yes, we were on a first name basis) was sick of hearing from me, I actually went to one of the matinees without any tickets, to badger unsuspecting patrons walking into the theater for an extra ticket.

When all was said and done, there was an option to pay $250 to see it (there had been some last-minute cancellations after all, but only for the expensive seats.) So I stood outside of the theater, debating whether or not this was reasonable, and whether I should dip into my savings or my hard-earned bonus to watch 3 hours of my favorite musical of all time. And just when I had rationalized it, because what is $250 but an expensive flight to Florida or 2.5 unlimited monthly metro cards? I eventually concluded, no, Melissa, this is absolutely NOT reasonable and you must go home.

I did go home but there may or may not have been some tears...

It's true, I'm a Sondeheim fanatic. I don't know what it is about his music that makes me so insane, but I love it. The idea that Merrily We Roll Along, which originally flopped in 1985 after only 25 performances, had such a small chance of being revived and I had a chance to see it. That those wall to wall 12 hours were only going to happen once in a lifetime. That there were only 5 performances of Company with a cast that can only be described as the uber cast. It's all been too much for me to handle.

The good news is that a taping of the uber cast doing Company will be playing at select movie theaters across the country in June. And you better believe that, if necessary, I will be doing something extreme to get tickets.

Is there anyone you will go to extremes for?